Rapid growth in the availability of reasonably-priced but nevertheless powerful personal computer systems coupled with explosive growth of the Internet has created unprecedented opportunities for people to collaborate online with large numbers of other people on a local, national or even global scale. Online collaboration systems (e.g., chat rooms) have always been a popular way for computer users to exchange thoughts with one another on topics of common interest. In a typical online collaboration system, every user can independently create messages that are sent to a collaboration server. Unlike a conventional e-mail system where messages are stored until they are requested by the addressees, collaboration system messages are posted (i.e., made available to all other users of the system) as soon as they are received. Every user is free to comment on any previously posted messages. The intent of atypical collaboration system is to provide a text-based online equivalent of a room full of people, many of whom are trying to talk at the same time about generally the same topic.
Early collaboration systems rarely fulfilled that intent. Relatively low network data transmission rates, high data error rates and relatively slow personal computer systems combined to cause significant delays in distributing posted messages to users and more delays in receiving responses from those users. Since users could submit messages at any time without regard to what was currently being posted by the collaboration server, it was not uncommon for a discussion to completely change direction before a given user could respond to a previously posted comment. By the time the given user's message reached the collaboration server, other users would have taken the discussions in a different direction, reducing the relevancy of the given user's message.
Message delays limited the usefulness of online collaboration systems. While such systems were feasible where people wanted to collaborate on a topic that either didn't change or changed relatively slowly, such systems were too slow to be of real value if people wanted to collaborate about a “topic” happening in real time, such as a broadcast of a television show or other video event.
However, as both personal computer systems and networks have become faster, it has become more feasible for viewers to collaborate in real-time about events as those events happen; for example, about a football game that is underway or a current episode of a favorite television show during its original airing. And, as online collaboration systems have become better able to “keep up” with real-time events, such systems have became more popular with more viewers until there are now significant communities of people who tune in to watch the event while simultaneously, enthusiastically communicating with others online (both within their community and throughout their country or the world) about the event as it happens.
It is somewhat ironic that as technology enabling people to collaborate online in real-time about events becomes more widely available, people are finding it difficult to find the time to participate in such collaborations due to the demands of their personal and professional lives.
The problem is not that someone who misses a broadcast of an event when it first occurs will never be able to see the event. There are a variety of ways in which a viewer can see a recording of the event even after the event has been completed. Personal recording devices, such as digital video recorders (DVRs), are widely used to record events for later viewing. The popularity of such recording devices is increasing as the devices become cheaper and easier to use while providing better quality recordings. Features such as frame-by-frame or slow-motion playback have increased the popularity of such personal recording devices, particularly among sports fans.
There are other ways a person can see a broadcast of an event long after the original broadcast has ended. One such way takes advantage of the power of the Internet. Content providers, including the original broadcaster and authorized re-broadcasters, can stream recordings across the Internet either on a published schedule or on demand by an individual viewer, enabling the viewer to watch the recording at his or her convenience. Similarly, the original content provider or an authorized re-broadcaster may distribute an encore presentation (that is, a rerun) of the event through the original broadcast medium.
A user who wants to watch a post-original presentation of an event (whether in the form of a personal recording or an Internet download or a rerun) won't miss out on the event. What the user will miss out on is the opportunity to collaborate in real time with others who are also watching a post-original presentation of the same event at the same time.